


Mutations and Soulmates

by corrielikesstory (corriegarrett)



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, X-Men (Movieverse)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Alternate Universe - X-Men Fusion, Angst, Ben Solo Needs A Hug, F/M, Movie: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Redeemed Ben Solo, Rey Needs A Hug, Reylo - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-03
Updated: 2020-04-10
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:54:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 11,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22105888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/corriegarrett/pseuds/corrielikesstory
Summary: When Snoke tries to storm the mansion to get to Senator Organa, Professor Luke and his X-men defend her. Rey meets Kylo in the middle of the fight and doesn't even realize they caused each other's soul-marks to appear. Kylo realizes. He takes Rey with him...(Playing fast and loose with both Star Wars and X-men tropes, starts sort of in the Takodana scene, then interrogation, etc.)
Relationships: Rey & Luke Skywalker, Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 12
Kudos: 81





	1. Bringing This One

**Author's Note:**

> I'm loving the fix-it fics, but I can't write them... So here's an AU with angst and Reylo fun and a happy ending. (Eventually)

When they finally faced off against Snoke and his band of mutants, Rey wasn’t scared. She was angry. And she was ready.

The faint light of the moon washed over the clearing in front of the mansion, making silhouettes of the enemies facing them. They were Snoke’s guards, his army.

The wind blew in strong gusts, causing fitful clouds to cover and uncover the moon.

The X-men, and students who were willing and able to fight, had the high ground near the stone walls of the house, but were also lit up, making visible targets. Warm golden light shone from the windows of the mansion. Rey planned to zap the house into darkness the moment a hostile move was made.

The Professor was speaking to Snoke, calling out to him aloud and mind-to-mind, offering him a chance to leave the Senator alone or enter as a friend, but Rey didn’t expect it to work. Everyone knew Snoke hated Senator Organa and everything she stood for. Dialogue. Coexistence. Compromise. Snoke despised non-mutants, but he HATED mutants who compromised with them. Leia called herself a public servant. She called on all mutants to show humility and steadfastness in the face of fear and even hostility. She believed in hope.

The professor felt compelled to offer mercy, but Snoke’s lumped, uneven silhouette showed no sign of withdrawal. His dark shadow seemed to radiate menace, no matter what the professor said.

Rey used the moments of tension to map her priorities. Old oak trees dotted the extensive grounds, and tall poplars lined the long driveway. Those might be concealing more mutants. Statuary dotted the paved walk around the house, and those would be good defensive structures for her and the others.

Several of Snoke’s crew Rey recognized on sight—Sabretooth, Toad, Hux, and so on—but some were new to her. There were probably only twenty, but twenty mutants was equal to—well, a lot of normal soldiers.

One in particular caught her eye as a serious threat: a tall, pale man with a black shirt, black pants, and shoulder-length black hair, which glistened in the moonlight. He stood just to Snoke’s right and something about his stance suggested violence.

Well, let him come. The professor would deal with Snoke, and Rey would take down that pale menace if she got the chance.

For too long it had been a silent war of attrition. Snoke’s group kept getting to new mutants faster, peeling off vulnerable recruits, and sometimes outright ambushing veteran X-men.

“So be it,” the professor said with a sigh. “We will defend the Senator.”

Rey stomped her foot, sending a surge of electricity to the main circuit breakers, which were buried about four feet below her. They were the nexus of the electrical conduits that powered the upper part of the house.

Plunged into darkness, but knowing it was coming, the X-men took immediate advantage. They were immediately running, springing, and even flying forward. For a precious matter of minutes, their enemies would have poorer night vision from staring up at the brightly lit house.

Rey dashed forward as well. The moon was hidden again, nice and dark.

The mutants met in clashes that would be more believable in a book of Greek mythology than a New Hampshire private school. Rey skirted around the worst of the fighting. She stomped her foot again, sending a pulse of electricity through the poplars first. Several yelps gave away hidden positions, and Rey raised her hand and zapped each of them with lightning that exploded out of her fingertips.

Dark figures tumbled helplessly out of the trees. They were only knocked out, but they wouldn’t come around for several hours. At that point, they’d be in secure cells in the facility below the mansion.

Rey was running again almost before they hit the ground. On the outer edge of the fight, behind the enemy “line,” such as it was, Rey pulsed the rest of the grounds, directing her energy outward so that she didn’t incapacitate any of the good guys.

No one gave themselves away out there. Finally she could turn to the actual fight.

Her tiny friend Beebee was grappling with a silver-coated woman. He looked outmatched, but already Phasma was slowing, unable to keep up with the little dynamo.

Rey’s friend Finn was in bigger trouble. He was well trained, but his mutation wasn’t much help in a fight (unless they ever fought underwater), so he had to rely on skill alone. Two mutants were on him, and Rey darted in between them. She threw her hands out, smacking each of them while simultaneously pulsing them. They dropped and Finn jerked a little, the residual power flowing into him from where they’d grabbed him. He would be fine though. His mutation allowed for an underwater transformation related to that of an electric eel.

Finn grinned at her and spun his weapon toward the house. “To the professor!” he called.

Rey only took a moment to take stock of the situation before following him. It was harder to help in close quarters without hurting her friends. She and Finn were a good team though—

A pulse of red light swung towards her cheek and Rey ducked.

The pale man with black hair had snuck up on her. From her crouch, Rey swung her foot out in a semi-circle to knock him down, but he jumped it easily. Red energy flowed around his hands and extended into a strange rod, like a laser frozen into a sword.

She rolled away as he slashed at her, feeling the heat on her back as it cut into the grass just behind her.

Somersaulting to her feet, Rey threw out her hand, sending a blast of pure, crackling electricity at him.

He caught it on his sword. It pushed him back a step, but the energy blade absorbed her power. Then he took a step forward.

Rey blinked. Her power was good for short, powerful bursts. She couldn’t keep this up indefinitely.

“I’m actually impressed,” he said.

Rey took a step back. The electricity crackled from her fingers, but she could feel the well running dry inside her.

“You’re the girl I’ve heard about.”

The other conflicts seemed to have moved toward the house. It was strangely quiet around them.

“Can’t say I’ve heard of you,” Rey said.

She stomped her foot and sent a pulse through the gloriously conductive wet soil beneath them.

He grunted, but did not fall. “Again, not bad. You need a better teacher.”

He took another step forward.

Rey swallowed convulsively. They were only a few paces apart.

He smirked. “And you have heard of me. My name is Kylo Ren.”

Oh. Rumors of darkness and confusion, power and...murder.

“You don’t seem that dark to me,” Rey said through gritted teeth, frantically considering how to last until the professor could help her. IF he could help her. “You’re all glowy and red. Hard to miss.”

He took another step forward and Rey’s electricity faltered. In that instant, he raised his left hand, fingers splayed out, and grabbed her head. His hand wrapped almost gently from her jaw to the back of her neck—why was he so big?—and before she could fry him, she saw darkness.

A wave of vertigo accompanied it, and Rey clutched at her eyes, falling to her knees and then to her side as the earth rushed up to her. Illusion? Blindness? What had he done?

A short stabbing pain in her shoulder almost went unnoticed in her confusion.

She could see nothing, not even phantom streaks from the lightning she had just been dishing out. She heard him utter a surprised curse.

Then strong arms were picking her up.

Rey tried to struggle, tried to electrify her skin, tried to shout, but nothing came out.

She heard Snoke’s croaky voice calling them to retreat. She felt Kylo begin to run, cradling her against his chest.

A warm distance spread in her mind, taking her further and further away from reality. The last thing she heard and felt was his voice. “Make room on the jet. I’m bringing this one.”


	2. I Feel It Too

When Rey awoke, she was strapped to a wooden table that had been propped against a wall. It was dim in the room, lit mostly by the lights of several racks of computer hard drives. Wires snaked neatly in bundled clumps from one box to another, a river of blue cords with tributaries and tidy deltas. A server room?

Wood was not conductive. Rey knew this but pulsed anyway, testing her bonds and the table. Nothing. If the table had been damp at all, that would have allowed something, but dry wood was hard to work with.

Some strange, smooth gloves covered her hands and fingers. Rey squirmed trying to see if she could still shoot lightning. Her hands sort of sizzled but not effectively.

“You can’t,” Kylo said. “The best in flame retardant, bamboo-fiber gloves.”

Her eyes darted around and found him sitting cross-legged in the shadow of the nearer server rack.

Rey took what comfort she could from the fact he still looked sweaty and a little grimy from the fight at the mansion. She must not have lost much time.

“Where am I?”

He stood. “You’re my guest.”

“Snoke’s guest, you mean,” Rey said bitterly.

“No. Actually mine.”

Rey frowned, looking him over. Still too big and too... intense. But the violence from before was lacking.

That was good. If he felt safe here, confident in her restraints, she would have more chance to surprise him.

He stalked close to her, and then surprised her by turning sideways. He pushed his right sleeve up over his shoulder, baring his soul mark. It looked rather like a watercolor tattoo, muted colors but a clear image of a tiny falcon and a dark eagle circling each other before a sunrise.

Rey secretly thought it was rather beautiful, too good for someone like him. “Why are you shoving this in my face?”

“I got it tonight.” He looked at her intently.

Rey frowned, then gasped. “One of... one of the X-Men?”

He looked at her as if she wasn’t getting it. He almost looked amused.

“If you’re trying to figure out who it is, I’m not going to help you.” She eyed him. “Even if I did, you couldn’t just lure them out of the mansion. They’ll have warning. They’ll show the professor their own mark, and if he can’t sense that it’s bad news, then—“

Rey broke off as he smiled quizzically and put his hand on her own sleeve, sliding it up. Rey pulsed her skin for good measure and was pleased when he flinched a little at the arc that caught his retreating fingers. So he wasn’t completely immune; probably his mutation offered a limited protection, like Finn.

“You didn’t feel it?” he asked.

“What?” Rey glanced at her own right shoulder. Her arms were spread a bit. Her wrists, wrapped with rope, were stretched to either side of the table, and presumably the rope was tied behind.

There was a tattoo on her shoulder that had not been there before.

Rey said a bad word. She couldn’t see it well, but she could see enough to tell that it matched.

“No.”

“Yes,” he said dryly. “I’m as surprised as you.”

Rey stared at him. A murderer, one of Snoke’s cruel thugs, a man she could never trust. A crushing disappointment hovered nearby, temporarily denied because of the dangers of the situation. But when she had time, she was going to rage at the universe for this bit of cruelty. Everyone longed for family, for belonging, but for a mutant like her, with such an aggressive mutation and history of abandonment, the longing was a physical ache.

Kylo ran a hand through his hair. “How old are you? X-man or student?”

“Will you let me go if I’m a student?”

Kylo closed his eyes. “I don’t know. Maybe.” He shook his head, as if clearing water out of his eyes. “I didn’t mean to say that.”

Rey was taken aback by his honesty. Unless it was an undergame to throw her off.

“Either way, is this how you treat your soulmate?” Rey said. “What a lovely way to start off.”

“Better than having you murder me,” he said evenly. “Or vice versa.”

“You could have left me there.”

“Would you have spoken to me again? You’d be having that removed as we speak.” He nodded to her mark.

That was probably true. They were tragically easy to remove. The world supplied soulmates but each person had to walk through the door.

“Untie me,” Rey said. “My arms are screaming. Then we can talk.”

He grimaced, but shook his head. “You’re still planning to kill me, I can see it in your eyes.”

“Kylo—“

“How old are you?” he barked.

“Nineteen. Not a student.” She wasn’t an X-man exactly, either, not yet. It probably would have been prudent to lie and see where that got her, but she was finding it hard to lie to him.

“What’s your name?” he asked softly. He touched his arm. “You must be the falcon, but that’s not a name.”

“I thought you’d heard of me.”

“I only heard the professor had a new star at his school, a little spitfire.”

“I’m not little.”

He shrugged, like someone tall enough that normal distinctions didn’t matter. “And her name is...”

“It’s Rey.”

He smiled a little. “Was that so hard?”

“Look,” Rey tried to lie and again found herself telling the truth. “I don’t have the energy to overpower you, but I don’t think you want to hurt me. Knock me out again and leave me somewhere else. I won’t kill you; you won’t kill me. Best case scenario at this point.”

“I can picture a much better one.”

Rey opened her mouth to retort, but shut it again.

His facade seemed to crack for a moment. “Aren’t you even curious? Didn’t you want a soulmate?”

Rey just glared at him, feeling confused and therefore angry.

“Of course you did. A girl who shoots lightning from her hands like a damn Sith... You haven’t found much acceptance in your life.” He narrowed his eyes. “You haven’t found acceptance anywhere. You are too powerful for the X-men. The wrong kind of powerful, I should say. Even there you were lonely, weren’t you? Even as they trained you, they feared you. Wondered if you were really on the Senator’s side. Because why would you tolerate humans when no human would tolerate you? You’re straight out of a nightmare.”

“Shut up.”

He was very close to her now. “I only know because I’m the same kind of nightmare.”

Rey turned her face to look away.

“You belong with us.”

“No.”

“You do. You’ll see it, and you’ll belong here in a way you never did with them.”

Rey turned back and stared into his eyes. “No. I won’t. You...you don’t even believe that. You’ve hidden me away in—what is this, a basement?—because you don’t trust the others. You’re afraid. Afraid that you’ll finally have something they can hurt you with. Afraid that they never truly accepted you, and finding out you’re bonded with an x-man will end it.”

“No—”

“Even if I stayed, you’d be afraid it wouldn’t last! Afraid you’d destroy what we have, like you destroy everything. Well, guess what? You already did.”

He jerked back as though she’d slapped him.

“Let me out,” Rey hissed.

Kylo turned half away, his head down, hair hiding his profile.

He left the room, letting the metal door clang shut behind him.

The look on his face, as if at the last turn of a thumbscrew or some such torture, was uncomfortably imprinted in her mind. Also uncomfortable was the knowledge that she hadn’t so much read him as revealed herself. She’d been guessing through her teeth, naming her own worst fears. Clearly it worked.

For one traitorous moment she couldn’t help but think that OF COURSE her soulmate would understand her worst fears. He would understand her, wouldn’t he? Complete her... except he was Kylo Ren!

Rey couldn’t used her electrical powers, but she was a wiry, determined girl and she worked one wrist loose in less than an hour. She lost some skin on her wrist, which smarted, but stretched both arms forward, dragging the rope with her left arm and groaning at the pleasure of the movement.

She untied the other hand and was able to shimmy out of the rope at thigh level. The gloves she whipped off, but then stuck in her pocket. They were actually a very good idea. She had destroyed more than a few phones and laptops with accidental surges.

Come to think of it... She eyed the electronics-heavy room thoughtfully. She could take these down now, but then, escape was primary and that would alert them to her freedom.

The door from the server room led to an industrial-looking hallway, concrete, exposed pipes, and rusty ductwork along the ceiling. Why HAD he brought her here? Was he trying to isolate her from Snoke and the others? He must be a trusted minion if Snoke let him do what he wanted...

She ghosted down the hall and peered around a corner.

The only light was from two vending machines further down the hall, at which two mutants were arguing about what to get.

Rey stepped out and strode toward them. “Obviously Skittles are the best. Do you have any change?”

They barely looked at her.

“No,” the boy said.

The girl, whose spiky purple hair looked rather like horns, dug through her pockets. “I might have a few more quarters...”

Rey had said it in order to get close to them, but hadn’t expected help.

A door marked “Stairs” was several paces beyond them. Maybe she could just...

“Hey! It’s— You’re the one— Kylo—“

Rey felt awful zapping them to unconsciousness, particularly when several coins fell out of the purple girl’s limp hand. They didn’t seem half bad.

She dashed to the stairwell and up, not hearing any feet but her own.

The upper floor was also dark, but much more posh. She was in a dark lobby with huge mirrors, European rugs, and a grand piano. A concierge desk faced the large glass doors in the front. Posh, but also abandoned, Rey realized as she shuffled quietly but quickly toward the exit. A thick layer of dust covered everything, but also revealed that while a mess of tracks crossed the marble floor in front of the lobby, none of the tracks went THROUGH the glass doors to the street ahead. To Rey, that meant those doors were off limits, probably alarmed. The mutants who used this place must have other entrances.

Rey, however, was good at rendering electronics null and void.

She stretched up on her toes and put her hand on the black, rectangular box by the doors. She sent her gentlest push... nothing happened, but she got a little bit of feedback, enough to sense what circuitry was in there. Her own little echolocation trick.

A harder push and the doors slid open, letting ice-cold air swirl around her. One more surge and the green LED on the box blinked out.

Rey dashed out into the freezing black night, grinning. Her confidence had taken a blow—being outmatched and captured was demoralizing—but at least she wasn’t incompetent.

Kylo kicked the footboard of his bed. Slammed his fist into the nightstand and smashed it.

What was he doing? Why was he trying to convince some skinny teenager to give him a chance as a soulmate?

He was the cold and ruthless Kylo Ren- the deadly right hand of Snoke himself. HE ought to be the one having his mark removed. He didn’t need a soulmate.

Kylo went in the bathroom and turned the shower on hot, letting the steam fill the room. He breathed it in, trying to calm down.

Yes, the girl was... impressive. Professionally, he wanted to see what she was capable of. His main mutation was also particle based, but instead of manipulating electrons, he could manipulate the noble gases, argon, helium, and so on. There were only trace amounts in the atmosphere, but somehow he could condense them and ignite them, making his sword. Could she do the same? What would it look like if they worked together?

Kylo stuck his hand in the scalding water and let the burn focus him.

He should’ve just left her. He accomplished nothing. Only now he had to decide what to do with her.

Obviously he didn’t want to hurt her—she’d thought that so shocking when she said it!—and he couldn’t keep her down there for very long. Even now she might be working her way out...

He slapped off the water and headed back to her.

It wasn’t just that he didn’t want her to escape. He didn’t want anyone else to confront her either. He’d told Snoke he was taking her to the secure 4th floor, the one they’d outfitted like a prison. It was a temporary lie. Only good until Snoke rested—he was always exhausted after a battle—and found her missing.

Kylo took the stairs down, but hesitated at the ground floor. Was he crazy or did he sense something?

The dusty, ornate lobby looked the same as ever, but it was cold. The front doors stood dead and open.

Kylo took off after her. He wasn’t built like a runner, per se, but he could hold his own.

The Quebec night was overcast, no moon was visible, and certainly no stars. Streetlights created dim Venn diagrams on the pavement, and the all but deserted road was cracked and weedy.

She had a hundred yards on him, maybe a hundred and fifty.

She was already jogging, but looked over her shoulder and began to run. She must be exhausted. He told himself not to care. He didn’t care.

“Rey! It’s freezing,” he called out, running full tilt. “You don’t know where you are.”

She was fast. As she ran, the streetlights began to burst above her. Starbursts of glass twinkled before disappearing into gloom.

He was wearing shoes, thankfully, since he was soon treading on shards of glass.

She didn’t know it, but she was heading towards the abandoned airport that housed Snoke’s jet and other equipment. This hotel had once been a fancy stop for the elite as they flew to their winter cabins for skiing. It was only a few hours by plane from the Professor’s school, but far colder.

She was only wearing a t-shirt. But he didn’t care, he reminded himself.

His panting breaths were frosty.

Still ahead, she stopped, scanning the low, old-fashioned terminal and hangar, plus the tarmac beyond. She tapped the nearby streetlight with her foot, and this time the whole row went black at once. Kylo couldn’t see her.

Odd that a mutant called Rey was so good at plunging people into darkness.

Clenching his hands into fists, he called up his energy, igniting it into his distinctive glowing sword. He told himself it was for light, but he also knew that she might very well try to ambush and destroy him if she got the chance.

What else should someone like him expect from a soulmate, after all?

Kylo was on edge as he entered the hangar. His sense of her—was that a soulmate thing?—said she was in here.

He took a few hesitant steps, reaching for the light-switches. He knew she could kill the power system in a moment, but the flash would help him get her position, and temporarily nightblind her. Which would be helpful since he had pretty poor night vision himself.

But as his hand found the panel, a shaft of lightning struck his exposed back. Kylo couldn’t help a strangled moan as he spun and got his sword up. She wasn’t in sight.

“So you’re not immune,” she said. Her voice was off to his left. Toward the jet and the helicopters.

Kylo swiftly moved that direction. The next blast was aimed for his knees, but he stooped and caught it with his blade.

“You’re only firing short bursts,” he said. “Is that how your mutation works, or have they just not taught you to steady it?”

He didn’t care if his voice gave away his position, since she could see his light anyway. She, on the other hand...

Didn’t answer.

“You won’t stay,” he said. “I get it. But the professor isn’t what he’s cracked up to be either.”

Kylo heard a familiar clang and thunk. She was opening a hovercopter. Could she fly one of those?

Rushing forward, Kylo caught her ankle as she scrambled up into the high cockpit. She electrified her skin, which hurt, but he clung on.

“Get off!” she snarled. She tried to kick him in the face, but he was too heavy for her, holding firmly to that foot.

Giving an exasperated scream, she turned and slapped a hand over his face, jolting him at point blank range.

The pain jarred him loose from her, from everything. It seared down his forehead, eye, cheek, into his teeth. It continued down his neck.

He lost his wits for a few precious seconds and regained them lying below her.

She glanced down at him, looking both horrified and proud. “Goodbye, Kylo.”

He pressed a slow, shaking hand to the strange burn on his face as she started the helicopter and the rotary blades began to whip. The swirling air pushed down on him as she took off.

Was she crazy? The hangar doors were shut.

But even as he thought that, her tiny hand stuck out the open door of the aircraft and a jagged bolt of energy raced from her hand to the doors. Like a thing alive, it snaked over the cracks and hinges and bolts before locking in on the controls.

With a great whine, the doors opened, and Rey flew out alone.

She was incredible.


	3. You Didn't Even Hesitate

Rey used the GPS of the state-of-the-art machine to figure out where she was. Then she used its communication system to ping the professor with her location.

Then all she had to do was fly south until the “real” X-men came to intercept her.

There was something surreally peaceful about being above everything, alone, in control, despite the muffled roar of the blades.

She found that the pilot’s chair could even be heated and decided she never wanted to give this toy up.

All too soon however, she had to land and meet up with the X-men.

Rey was hustled onto their all-but-invisible transport and said a hasty farewell to the awesome machine.

The professor was waiting for her on board. His shaggy brown-gray hair looked particularly wild and his face haggard.

Rey strapped in next to him, in the seats along the wall. “I suppose we can’t bring it?” she asked.

He huffed in surprise. “That’s it?

Are you alright? People rarely escape from Snoke intact.”

Rey slumped against the straps, adrenaline finally deserting her. “It was Kylo Ren, not Snoke.” She almost slid her sleeve up to show him why, but... didn’t.

“Kylo Ren? I saw him at the mansion, but...” he sighed heavily. “We didn’t realize you were taken until too late. I am sorry, Rey.”

She tried to shrug. “Hazard of the fight, I understand.”

“It wouldn’t surprise me if Snoke tried to turn someone like you. But Kylo, what part did he play?”

“Just...just the same schtick. How could I compromise with the humans when they’ll always fear and hate me. So on and so forth.”

He nodded sadly. “It’s sounds like he’s becoming Snoke’s apprentice. I’ll have to tell the Senator.”

Rey frowned. “Why does that matter to her?”

“Because...” The professor’s eyebrows went up. “Because he’s her son, Ben Solo. I forgot you wouldn’t have known.” He explained the circumstances, Ben’s difficulty with other mutants, his anger, his outbursts. His eventual turn to Snoke. “I tried to train him.” The Professor clenched his fists. “Years ago. It didn’t go well.”

Now it was Rey’s turn to clench up.

She rubbed her arm carefully, thankful her dark blue t-shirt would show nothing.

“Ben,” she repeated slowly. “That’s a better name.”

The next afternoon, warm and (relatively) safe in her room in the mansion, Rey woke slowly and stretched stiff and tired limbs. She’d fallen into bed near dawn and slept most of the day.

She perched on the edge of her bed, rubbing sleepiness and grit out of her eyes.

Her room was filled with half-dismantled projects and copper wiring and loose switches. She liked to play with that sort of thing and was something of a magpie about collecting shiny things.

While she sat there, trying to decide if she should eat breakfast or dinner, a strange muffled silence overtook the room. The faint rush of the heating vents was gone, so were the muffled voices from the first floor and the rustle of wind and leaves in dry autumn branches.

Just in front of her desk, Kylo Ren appeared. He was holding an ice pack to his face and looking down at something in his lap, maybe a phone.

He stared at her.

Rey scrambled backward on the bed, out of reach of his long arms. Before he could grab her, she spread her hand and sent lightning cracking toward his midsection.

He jolted in panic. His hand with the ice pack drifted down, forgotten. Then he ran a hand over his flat stomach, bemused and unhurt.

Then he disappeared.

Rey’s desk was a smoking wreck. Feet pounded down the hallway and Beebee burst in, followed closely by Finn and Poe.

“What is it?”

Rey was shaking. Had he really been there? Was this a soulmate thing? “I just... had a nightmare,” she said finally. “I’m sorry.”

Poe looked grave. They’d had enough close calls and near deaths with nightmares to make those serious words.

Beebee hugged her. “It’s okay. We all do it.”

Finn smiled in relief, ruffling Rey’s hair. “Scared me to death.”

Poe nodded. “It is okay, Rey, but I’ll need to put one of the night warning signs on your door.”

“Yeah, sure.” More than a few mutants had those, reminding people not to wake them from close proximity.

Rey didn’t see Kylo again until the next morning. She was out walking the grounds. Three layers now covered her soul-mark, ending with an over-large hoodie.

“How are you doing this?” Kylo demanded. “Is the professor using you to infiltrate Snoke’s base?”

“Infiltrate? You’re the one here!” Rey swung her arms to indicate the trees and lush park-like grounds. “Get out of here!”

“You can’t see my surroundings?” He paused. “I can’t see yours either. Only you.”

“Is this a soulmate thing?” Rey demanded. “Are you activating it somehow?”

“Are you?” Kylo reached forward to touch her arm and Rey skittered back.

His face didn’t look good. A shiny, swollen line traced from his hairline, down his face, and into his shirt collar. The burn looked painful. But she didn’t care, did she?

He disappeared again.

Kylo was intrigued. He knew his own powers were not accomplishing these odd meetings. He could blind and disorient people with his gas-bending (as he thought of it), but not get into people’s heads like Snoke or the professor.

That left Rey or the soul bond. Rey’s powers were still unclear, but if he could trust the honesty that seemed to be choking the truth out of both of them, she had no idea what was happening. He’d wanted to touch her and see if they felt anything. He suspected this was some sort of real-time hallucination, but the only way to know was to test it.

But the next time it activated, he was just finishing with his shower. He had on sweats but not his shirt.

“I don’t want to do this right now,” Rey said.

He turned around to face her. “No kidding.”

She turned her face away slightly. “Um. Don’t you have an evil cape or something to put on?”

Kylo ignored this, though of course, he had his shirt right there. She looked subdued, tired, and depressed. “Have they told you all about me then?” Kylo demanded.

“Just that you’re the Senator’s son. That you betrayed the school and the Professor and left.” Rey spat the words. “They cared about you.“

“Did they tell you the Professor tried to kill me? That I woke up with his hand on my forehead, and his thoughts in my head, stopping my breathing and slowing my heart?”

“I— don’t believe you.”

He took a step closer. “But we can’t lie to each other. Haven’t you noticed?”

She frowned suddenly and intensely, looking troubled. “But... the Senator...”

“She didn’t believe me either. Only my soulmate knows I’m being honest,” he couldn’t help the dark emphasis on the word soulmate. Any time he thought or said the word it caused a flare of pain. Why couldn’t it have been some mutant on Snoke’s side? Someone who might accept him?

Rey bit the side of her mouth.

“What? Haven’t you told them? Or have you had the mark removed already?”

Kylo reached forward to see if he could touch her through the connection, and it shut off as she jerked away.

Rey made her confession in the professor’s richly appointed office. Senator Organa had already been in there, and Rey had shaken her head when the older lady tried to excuse herself. “You might as well stay.”

Rey took a deep breath. “I didn’t explain the full interaction I had with Kylo Ren. And I think I ought to tell you.”

Leia looked faintly ill, the Professor, grim. “Torture?”

“What? No.” Rey shook her head to dispel that image. “I... he... we touched that night, during the fight, and our soul marks appeared.”

They both froze.

“So, yeah. That was why the whole night went down that way.”

Leia’s eyes were filled with tears. “And then he let you go?”

Rey didn’t want to destroy her hope. She grimaced. “Well, no. Not exactly. I had to nearly electrocute him to get away clear. But on the other hand, he kept me far from Snoke, so I suppose in a way...”

The professor put his head in his hands. “The last thing we need,” he muttered.

Leia straightened, regally. “Really, Luke? I think this is exactly what we need. I consider this a mark of extreme good luck. The fact that he’s bonded with someone here, one of your X-men, no less. What a chance!”

Rey and Luke made eye contact. They both knew that Rey was not exactly one of the X-men. Luke had offered her a home, of course, but he had been reluctant to let her join the team. Finn already had the uniform and he’d been here less than six months.

The professor had blamed his reluctance on Rey’s age, but now, as he looked guiltily at her, she knew Kylo was right. He didn’t entirely trust her and her extreme mutation.

“Can I see it?” Leia asked.

Rey felt a little awkward. She slid the hoodie over her head and then slipped the loose neckline of her shirt low enough to show the top of her shoulder.

Leia sniffled and pressed a hand to her mouth. “Lovely. Thank you, my dear.” She embraced Rey like a daughter. “I know this is not an easy path, but I, who have preached hope for so many years, finally have some for my son.”

Luke’s face twitched. “Can I have a moment with Rey?”

Leia left and Rey righted her clothes. “You’re not happy.”

He exhaled one long, stressed breath. “I’ve lost dedicated men and women to Snoke. People whose loyalty I would never have questioned.”

“As opposed to me, whose loyalty you already question?”

He winced. “Rey, the soul bond is extremely volatile. And the stronger party usually exerts more... force, so to speak. You’re exceptionally strong, but Ben has ten years on you, plus an intellect and a rage that’s...” he shook his head. “I would be frightened to be on the other end of a tether with him, and I’m the strongest mutant I know.” He said this not arrogantly, but as fact.

“It’s a good thing you’re not his soul-mate then,” Rey retorted. “So, you expect I’ll just give in and be another of Snoke’s minions?”

“Not immediately, no.” He let the implication hang in the air.

“Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

“I’m being brutally honest here.” Luke spread his hands.

“Just brutal, you mean. Is this a bad time to tell you that he keeps appearing out of thin air since I got back?”

Luke blanched. “He what?”

“I don’t know! He appears, we yell at each other, he disappears.”

“That’s a psy mutation power,” Luke said. “Which neither of you have. That’s... strange.”

“No joke.” Rey figured this might be the wrong moment to bring up Kylo’s story about Luke.

“Do you think...” Luke ran a hand through his messy hair. “Would you be willing to let me see it from your perspective?”

Rey couldn’t help hunching when she realized what he meant. “You mean look in my head?” Rey was dubious, but in the end, she wanted answers as much as Luke.

He stood behind her chair and placed both hands on her head.

Like a kaleidoscope, Rey was whirled back through scenes from the last few days, Kylo’s face prominent in most of them. But also like a kaleidoscope, lots of other bits and pieces were mixed in. Exquisitely painful moments of her past. Times when she’d hurt someone and wanted to die. Times when she’d been called a monster, a nightmare. Times when she’d wanted someone to love her, to hold her. And the feel of Kylo’s hand along her jaw, when he’d only been knocking her out.

With a dexterous twist, the kaleidoscope changed again, but this time the scenes were only in her imagination.

Some of them were daydreams she remembered. Her and Poe, as a couple. Her and Finn. She’d known they weren’t for her, but she’d longed for that kind of closeness and security.

But there were other... daydreams, for lack of a better word.

Rey and Ben, holding hands. Kissing. Fighting together. Holding a baby girl with dark hair and pale skin...

“Stop it!” Rey shouted. She rocked forward in the chair, springing to her feet and facing Luke. “How dare you...play with me like that.”

“You didn’t even hesitate. With the slightest block removed, your thoughts went immediately to him. Completely to him.”

“I can’t help that! He’s my soulmate. That doesn’t mean I’ll act on it.”

Luke’s skepticism was plain.

“You had no right to do that,” Rey said. “Or to judge me on what you saw there.”

She stormed out of his office, slamming the door behind her. She ran to her room and huddled on her bed in a miserable ball.

It wasn’t just that she was hurt. It was the crumbling of an idol. The feet of clay revealed on a man she trusted and respected.

She hadn’t nearly got done crying when the bond opened up again.

“Are you alright? What happened?” Kylo asked. He leaned forward, but this time, didn’t try to touch her.

Rey pushed herself up to sit on the edge of the bed. He appeared to be sitting on the end of her bed, looking more than ever like he was in the room.

He recovered himself and sat back, but his hands were loose in his lap. “What happened?” he asked quietly in his deep voice.

Rey gave in. “It’s... I thought I had a place here, you know? This is my Hogwarts. But instead of Dumbledore, I ended up with...” she trailed off. “I don’t know. But he doesn’t trust me. Never will after this.”

Kylo sat quietly, waiting.

“Why couldn’t it have been Finn or Poe? Someone easy?”

Kylo’s eyes flickered with pain, and Rey moaned. “I’m sorry. I’ve just never felt so alone.”

Kylo hesitated, then said, “But you’re not alone.”

Rey sniffed and her shoulders went back. “Neither are you.”

Tentatively, she stuck out her hand and Kylo met her half way.

While they both expected their hands to slide through each other like a bad hologram, they instead found themselves gripping the other’s strong, warm hand.

Rey shivered and looked up at him. “How are we doing this?”

But then somebody knocked on Rey’s door.

Kylo held more tightly to Rey’s hand as he heard Luke’s voice.

“Rey, I need to apologize,” Luke said. “I shouldn’t have invaded your mind that way...”

He pushed the door open and the bond broke just as Luke spotted Kylo, the old man’s face going livid...

Kylo slumped forward, clutching his stomach. He clenched and unclenched his hand. Was it really possible that Rey would leave the X-men for him? Now that it actually seemed like a possibility, he realized that he’d never thought it would work. Why would anyone give up anything for him?

But what was happening there right now? What did Luke mean that he’d invaded her mind? Kylo wanted to destroy him all over again.

But more importantly, he wanted Rey to be safe. With him. Some deep instinct insisted that she would never be safe away from him, and he deserved the right to protect her.

Another part of him protested this. Despite what he wanted, she would never be safe near Snoke.

Kylo was still smarting from the mental beating he’d taken after letting Rey escape. Snoke was not forgiving.

“You have compassion for her,” Snoke had accused. “It blinded you.”

Thank heaven Kylo had been able to conceal that Rey was his soulmate. Snoke had believed him when Kylo declared that his interest in Rey was about her mutation. When Snoke searched Ben’s mind, Ben had kept her power and his awe of it front and center.

“She is powerful, I admit,” Snoke had said. “But you brought her here and now she’s taken our location back to them.”

Kylo had taken his punishment as silently as possible. He wouldn’t wish anything like that on Rey. But then, she was less of a screw-up than he was. Snoke surely wouldn’t find her as dissatisfactory as Kylo. If she joined him...


	4. Please, Rey

Rey felt Luke’s power wash through the room, trying and failing to freeze Kylo Ren, or Ben Solo, in place. Luke’s power wasn’t kinetic though, it was mental. And though Rey found herself in a paused, statue-like trance—one hand outstretched, her mouth half-open—clearly it did nothing to keep Ben in place. He was not here.

Luke released her. Rey stumbled to her feet, blinking and slightly numb from his control.

“I could feel his presence,” Luke said, aghast. “He was here and yet not here; I couldn’t reach his mind at all.”

Rey rubbed her hand, still feeling the temporary connection she’d shared with Ben and quickly growing angry again. “That’s the real terror for you, isn’t it? Someone you can’t control?” She made a fist.

“You don’t understand what’s going on here,” Luke protested. “Neither of us do. You don’t know how dangerous he is.”

Rey stalked towards him. “So dangerous that you would try to kill him in his sleep?”

Luke took a step back into the hall. “No—“

“He can’t lie to me. He says you nearly stopped his heart. Nearly murdered him.”

“I—I wouldn’t have.” Luke’s eyes flitted down the hall, seeing students and staff beginning to poke their heads out. He pushed Rey back into her room and shut the door. “I would never have killed the Senator’s son, but for a moment... You have to understand Rey, with most people, I can see not only their thoughts, but often their imagination. Like I did with you, but easily. Everyone has dark thoughts now and again, but Ben... I was growing concerned. One night his dreams were so violent, so horrible... I came up to his room to wake him. He heart was pounding, his mind stuck in the dream. I did calm his heart beat as I tried to draw him out of the dream.” He sighed. “And for a moment, I thought about calming it to a stop. I’d seen his thoughts and dreams grow more and more evil. I knew where he was headed.”

Rey ripped open a drawer and started throwing some clothes in her backpack. “You knew where he was headed? You’re not God! He was fighting it!”

“I wouldn’t have killed him,” Luke defended himself. “I’d already realized how wrong my impulse was. But then he woke up.”

Rey grabbed more clothes and pulled her hoodie back on. “And then he went to Snoke. Of course, he did! Where else could he go? His mother didn’t even believe him.”

Luke sagged. “I should have told her. That is the worst of it.”

Rey laughed bitterly, zipping her bag. “Well, I guess I can do that for you on my way out.”

Luke only moved a tiny bit, a shifting of his weight to block her exit, and Rey stilled. “You’re going to get out of my way,” she said quietly.

“Rey, this is exactly what Snoke would want. If you go to Ben now—“

Rey raised her hand, threatening him. “You know what my past was like. If you don’t move—“

“Rey—“

She felt the work of his mind in hers. Perhaps it was only to calm her, to diffuse the situation, but it also might be much more. It was the wrong move.

“How dare you,” Rey said quietly. She shocked him enough to stun him, but kept it under control. Still, he rebounded enough to grab her arm even as she pushed past him and wrested the door open.

“This won’t go the way you think.” Luke’s fingers grabbed for her. “You can’t—“

“Yes, I can.” Power crackled from her free hand and knocked him out cold.

Rey swung around but this time she was the one who paused. The horrified stares of nearly the whole school faced her in the hallway. Finn, Beebee, Poe, Kaydel... mouths open, brows lowered. Fear and dismay and even anger rolled off them like waves.

“I—I have to go. It’s not what it looks like,” Rey stammered. “I’ll see you all soon. I hope.”

She stomped her foot and all the lights in the hallway flickered out. Rey used the darkness to slip away from the mansion.

Taking one of Poe’s prize motorcycles, with a silent promise that she’d return it when she could, Rey drove north.

Kylo wasn’t sure what he expected, but it wasn’t for Rey to fly back to their abandoned airport three days later, in the very hover-copter she’d stolen. It was ballsy and stupid and reckless and he found himself falling even more for her.

Unfortunately, he was with Snoke in the courtyard of the empty hotel when they spotted the craft. The courtyard was full of dead leaves in drifts, a cracked pool, empty except for a scummy, frozen green layer near the bottom, and the skeletons of pool chairs, twisted and bent into unrecognizable shapes.

“She returns,” Snoke said. He waved his hand, releasing Kylo from the near- stranglehold that Kylo had been working to throw off while forming his usual neon sword into a shield shape. Snoke’s training was intense, but Kylo could not deny that Snoke had taught him far more than Luke ever had.

Kylo had seen the copter pass over as well, nearly choking when he saw it, but from surprise, not Snoke’s chokehold.

Snoke eyed him measuringly. “Go meet her at the airport. Bring her back to me here.”

“She may not... I don’t know why she returned.” Kylo had told Snoke nothing of their strange meetings. He did not know what to think now.

Rey was not coming to join Snoke, Kylo was certain of that. She may have begun to trust Kylo, a thought that made his stomach hurt, and she had definitely been shaken by the truth of Luke’s betrayal, but she wasn’t going to change everything she believed in twenty-four hours.

Which meant she had come for him, for Ben.

This was not going to go well.

Snoke’s uneven face was calculating. One of his eyes was larger than the other, and it seemed to grow more piercing as he stared. “You’re right, she may overpower you again. I’ll send several others to make sure you are successful.”

Snoke strode inside. His garish and ridiculous golden robe billowed around his wiry frame.

He called Hux and a few other of his fanatics, ordering them to assist Kylo Ren in capturing the girl.

Kylo was used to keeping his face a mask. Deep inside, unspoken, he hoped she would rethink her crazy plan and leave before they got there.

But soon they were arriving at the hangar, and she stood in the middle of the dead gray street, just in front of the wide bay door.

Her hands were relaxed at her sides, her hair down and blowing slightly in the chill wind. Dark gray clouds were piling up in the west, but a bit of diffuse sunlight had found its way through the leaden sky and lit her up.

Kylo rubbed his soulmark. She was beautiful. How on earth had this woman been meant for him?

Hux and the others fanned out around him, encircling her, but she didn’t look at them.

Kylo stopped in front of her. He could tell from her soft expression that she didn’t hate and despise him the way she had done before. But why was she _here_? Was it possible that she would willingly join Snoke’s group?

She had on the gloves already, the ones that shorted out some of her adaptation, and she quietly let him cuff her hands.

The others fell back as Kylo walked her toward the hotel. His glare might have had something to do with it.

Without turning his face toward her, Kylo asked, “Why come now?”

She looked straight ahead as well. “I waited for our bond to reopen, but it didn’t.” She paused. “I left Luke.”

“If you need a place to stay, this isn’t—”

She gave him a withering glance. “I don’t.”

“Snoke saw you arrive. He’s waiting.”

Rey’s jaw twitched a little. “Then let’s leave.” She glanced at him again. “Right now, you and me, let’s just go.”

Kylo was hyper-aware of the three men behind them, but he was finding it hard to drag his eyes from Rey’s face. Did she mean it? Leave it all behind… for each other?

She continued. “I know you’re telling the truth. I already confronted the professor and he confessed to me what happened. I can verify the truth to your mother. Let’s go back, now, and finish this mess.”

Oh. That’s what she meant. Bringing back the prodigal son, cementing her place with Luke at the school… “I’m not going back.”

“I’ll help you.”

Kylo felt a weight forming in him. “You can’t have everything. I won’t be your perfect X-men soulmate. I thought that was clear.”

“That’s not what—”

But they were already reaching the hotel. Kylo took Rey’s arm as they passed through the dusty finery of the lobby and entered the barren courtyard.

Snoke stood beneath the leafless skeleton of a broad tree, just beyond the pool area.

“Ah, Rey. A pleasure to meet you,” he said. “And well done, Kylo. I wasn’t sure you would bring your soul-mate to me if I asked. My confidence in your fidelity is restored.”

Kylo had looked down at his scuffed, black army boots but at this his eyes jerked up. Rey was a few paces ahead of him, and she sucked in a breath.

“It was obvious, children. Your dismay is precious.”

Kylo swallowed.

“Rey, we would welcome someone of your talents to our little band. I’ve been meaning to pay a visit to the QEG headquarters—”

“The what?” Rey asked, surprisingly calm.

“The hub of the electrical grid for Quebec. Your skills would be extremely valuable, particularly if Kylo is right that your electrical pulses relay information back to you as well as energy.”

“No,” Rey said baldly. “I won’t help you terrorize the people of this or any other country.”

“Hm. So you just came for Ren. Disappointing.”

Rey didn’t answer.

“We have a great purpose here. It cannot be held back by timidity, laziness, or misplaced sentiment. It is a global order that will see mutants gain their rightful place in the world. All else must give way before the natural right of evolutionary breakthrough. If you—”

“No,” Rey repeated. “I won’t lift a finger to help you. I’ve seen what you do to those you think beneath you. Cruelty and control—I don’t want any part of it.”

Snoke’s mouth twisted and he raised a hand, jerking Rey off the ground. Her body went stiff. A soft cry gave way to a scream of pain.

Kylo’s fist hardened, his tendons strained.

He was intent on the two of them and didn’t notice a growing hubbub from the direction of the airport until Snoke’s attention was broken. Snoke tilted his head sharply, listening. Rey’s feet touched back to the ground and she panted as his grip relaxed and she got a full breath.

A small smile broke out on Snoke’s face.

“A rescue party cometh, my dear. I suppose you gave the X-men the location of this compound?”

Rey raised her chin defiantly. “Yes.”

He smiled widely. “Excellent.”

Snoke was unparalleled at certain kinds of telekinesis. He raised his arms, and Kylo, Rey, and he himself soared into the air and landed on the roof of the hotel.

Snoke levitated Rey to the edge of the building. Her toes tugged helplessly at the concrete lip, failing to get her feet back under her.

“I can sense the Professor’s students from here,” Snoke said, “but he is strangely absent. These few weren’t ready for this attack, but they wouldn’t leave you unprotected.”

It was too far to make out individual figures, but Kylo could see that Snoke’s mutants were dominating. Even as they watched, Hux’s particular brand of orange poison, which seeped like misty snakes in several directions, wrapped around a small struggling figure who abruptly slumped to the ground. Toad leaped from the roof of the building, taking down another. Sabretooth bore another X-man into a wall, and even from here, Kylo was sure he could see a splash of red blood from where his claws had impaled them.

Rey whimpered.

Snoke spun her around and brought her close to him. “Are you sure you won’t help me?” He was inches from her face, and Kylo felt a revulsion that was half hers, half his. How had Kylo followed Snoke for this long?

Snoke sneered at her. “Kylo may be your soulmate, but he is loyal to me. If you want to join him, you have to join me.”

Rey turned her face away from his. There were tears on her face.

“As I thought. Kylo, she’ll never accept either of us. But a lingering, distant soulmate can drain even the best of men. Finish her off now, and the soulmate bond will be done. You’ll be whole; you’ll never struggle with this again.”

Kylo pulled the gas close around his fist and ignited his sword. “Yes.”

“I should never have doubted you,” Snoke said. “You are every bit the monster you claim to be. Finish it.”

Kylo walked up next to them and Snoke caused Rey to float back, giving Kylo a clear shot. Kylo raised his sword—

And slashed it through Snoke.

Rey collapsed to the ground. A lingering ache still echoed through her body from Snoke’s torture, and she felt as if she would never catch her breath, but she forced her head up.

Kylo held out his hand, and Rey grasped it, letting him pull her to her feet. Snoke was dead, clearly. The fight continued at the airport. Rey turned toward it, tugging at Kylo’s hand. “Let’s go. We can stop them now!”

She pulled on him again, but it was like pulling at a pillar. He stared at Snoke, fixated on his lifeless master. The gathering clouds were darkening the sky now, and Rey felt a patter of rain on her bare arms, saw the dark spots on the concrete of the roof.

“He had it coming,” Rey assured him. “But unless you can levitate us down from here, we need to take the stairs.” She tried to head toward that door, but now Kylo’s hand tightened on hers, keeping her from leaving. She felt a tingling warmth and saw that his red energy field or whatever it was now surrounded her hand as well.

“We can let the past die.” His voice was strange. Rey felt a chill. “Snoke. Luke. All of it. Neither side deserves our loyalty.”

“My friends… Ben, please.”

He finally looked at her. It was frightening. He saw her and yet did not see her. He glanced at their hands, glowing red. “We’re free of this now. Join _me_ , Rey. Not them.”

Rey’s heart was hurting. They’d come so close. “Don’t make me choose. They’re my family…”

Both Rey and Ben’s heads snapped around when the stair door slammed open. More of Snoke’s men, some just as powerful as Ben, stormed onto the roof. They took in Snoke’s body with curses and exclamations. They advanced with murder in their eyes.

There was no more time for conversation. Kylo slashed his sword through her cuffs. Rey used her teeth to rip off one of the gloves. Then the men were on them.

But, strangely, it was as if the whole scene made sense to her in a way different than other fights she’d been in. Rey used her lightning to incapacitate the first, though the falling rain actually made it harder. Her electricity would redirect in fits and starts. Another was throwing spikes and sliced open her shoulder. Rey yelped. But she was back to back with Kylo, and he was holding his own.

“On your left,” he said. Rey felt or sensed more of that tingling power and instinctively ignited it as it brushed past her. A miniature purple fireball smashed into the chest of the spike thrower. He jerked as if he’d touched a live wire and dropped like a rock.

She and Kylo were a force. They lit up the roof like a neon firework display. Using their combined powers was less exhausting than using her lightning alone, and Rey felt she could have gone all day.

Nonetheless, she was gasping for breath when she spun around and realized the last man was down.

Kylo’s eyes were burning. “That was incredible.”

“I know.” Rey’s heart was pounding, but she was remembering where they’d left off.

He held out his hand. “Please, Rey.”


	5. Compromise

Rey shook her head. Raindrops ran down her face and also Ben's. Soon they would both be drenched. "It's not about Luke. Rose, Finn, Poe...they're my friends and I cannot abandon them. Even for you."

Ben's outstretched hand turned into a fist. "Then--"

Rey wiped away tears. "See you around, soulmate." She bolted for the stairwell and melted the hinges shut behind her, to slow Ben down. Of course, he could probably slash through the door in moments, but even a few seconds might make a difference. She ran as fast as she could.

Breathless and battered by the rain, Rey approached the airport to find that the battle was nearly over. Poe was still up and fighting, but he'd been cornered. Chewie was facing off against three, and his roar was music to her ears, but she wasn't sure how long he could go, even in his beast form. Finn was fighting Hux for all he was worth, and Rey was impressed to see that he was holding his own. Before she could even get to him, he managed an uppercut that must have rattled the man's teeth. Hux's orange poisonous cloud coalesced around him as he dropped to the ground. But despite that victory, there were too many of Snoke's thugs. Rose was already down, as well as several others. 

Rey dropped Toad mid-leap as he jumped for Chewie, but the rain made the shot weaker than it should have been. He fell, but rolled to his feet and spat in her direction. His slime coated her face and stuck.

Rey panicked. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't see. She instinctively tried to pulse herself with electricity, but that didn't seem to make a difference. She tried to fry it with her hands, but that did nothing except cause starbursts of light that disoriented her. She collided with something and fell to her knees. She felt hands on her and pulsed wildly.

One firm hand came back and gripped the back of her neck, holding her still.

With a flash of heat, the slime was all but gone. Ben stood above her. He was the one who'd grabbed her head. His other hand was lit with the saber, which he must have just used to slice off the muck. Rey gasped in air, rubbing the rest of the nasty stuff off her cheeks and forehead and nose. She was thankful now for the rain which washed over her reddened face.

Ben let go of her once she began breathing again. He let the glow die away and was just himself again.

Rey clambered to her feet and looked around. Everyone else was down. Poe, Finn, Chewie, all the thugs. "What did you do?" Rey moved a few steps to Chewie, placing her ear by his mouth to make sure he was breathing. His fur was tangled and wet.

Ben laughed humorlessly. "I didn't knock them out. You did. He tried to get near you and you let out a pulse that would put an EMP to shame."

"Did I-- Did I--?" But Rey's fingers were already telling her that Chewie was alright, albeit unconscious. "I could've killed him. I could've killed my friends."

Ben was thoroughly soaked now. His black clothes sagged with water, his hair was plastered to his skull. "That's what being a mutant _is,_ Rey. Luke likes to pretend that mutation can be light and orderly and scientific. But that should be the true motto of the mutant, 'I could've killed my friends.'"

Rey bit back a sob. "I didn't ask for this."

Ben's tone gentled. "None of us did. The worst horror is to fear yourself, but until you do, you'll never understand those who fear you. You'll never understand how to control it." 

"Are you afraid of me?" Rey asked. "You should be."

Ben smiled a little. "No. Not you, or myself. I made a choice on the roof, and I'm not afraid anymore. And I'm not talking about the choice to kill Snoke, that was preventing a murder and it had to be done. But when you refused the second time, I decided to help you save your friends. Unfortunately, you ran and slagged the door before I could explain." He slicked his hair back. "I can't stay at the school. I can't. But I can take you and your friends back and let you make your decision there, without chaos and crisis to force your hand."

Ben shouldered Finn and carried him back to the X-jet.

  


By the time they got all of her friends piled into the jet, wrestled them into seats, and strapped their limp bodies in, it was dark. The rain was letting up and the clouds thinning. A few stars illuminated the sky as Rey ran through a brief check of the systems. She sat in the pilot's seat and Ben hovered behind, one hand on her chair.

"Everything alright?" he asked.

She cranked the heater on high, though she was still shivering in her wet things. "Yes. Thank you. I couldn't have gotten them all in here by myself."

"You're welcome. I guess I'll take a seat--"

"This thing has got an autopilot. And a beacon." She rubbed her eyes tiredly.

Ben frowned. "Yes?"

"I can set it now, make the jet land in the field near the school. They'd be fine."

"And we would..."

"We would take that awesome little hover-copter and get the heck out of here. I've heard Alaska is beautiful in the spring."

Ben felt an unknotting in his stomach. He was willing to return Rey to the school and wait--altruism aside, he was fairly confident that she would eventually come around--but the thought of going to the school, returning to his uncle, still made him feel ill. "Now?" he clarified. "Don't you want to go back for your things? To say goodbye?"

"I don't have that many things," Rey said. "And for the other..." She tapped several commands on the piloting screen. A small red LED lit up, and her face was shown on the screen. She was making a recording.

"Hey guys, thanks for what you did. I doubt it went down like you expected, but you made a difference. You distracted Snoke and you... well, you helped clarify some things. Snoke won't be a problem any longer, by the way. And I'm sorry I knocked you all out at the end, total accident," she grimaced weakly and her hand slipped up to grip Ben's, "but I know you'll be fine. I'll be back sooner or later, but I have other places to be now. Please tell Leia that Ben and I will be in touch." She squeezed his hand and pulled it down slightly so it was in the image. "I'll make sure he writes or something. Good bye, guys. I love you."

She clicked off the video and then finished entering the latitude and longitude of the school for the guidance system. She wiped her face, but Ben wasn't sure whether it was tears or rain.

Ben followed her off the jet where she leaned against the hangar to watch it take off. The thing was so sleek and sliver and polished, it was the symbol of all the X-men stood for, and she was letting it go. She shivered again, and Ben hesitantly put his arm around her thin shoulders. His hand rested over her soulmark and he could practically feel his own hum in response.

Her smile flickered up to him. "Thanks. You're warm."

"We'd better not stay here long," Ben said after a moment, though he would happily have stayed holding her forever. "I don't know whether everyone at the hotel got knocked out, but they could be here soon."

"Right. You're right." Rey straightened, clearly someone who was accustomed to pushing past her limits when necessity demanded it. Her eyes looked shadowed and weary. Did she already regret her decision?

Ben didn't ask. He would just have to prove to her that this was right.

Rey slipped into the pilot's chair, but just looked at the controls. "We're really doing this."

"I hope so," Ben said. "But possibly not if we don't get off the ground soon."

Rey laughed, then blinked her eyes again. "Sorry, I'm tired. I think the adrenaline is wearing off."

"Just close your eyes then. I'll fly."

"But are you a pilot?"  


Ben smirked. "In fact, I am."  


Rey leaned her head back as he began to power it up. "Then why were you waiting for me?"

Ben focused on his task for a few moments. "I didn't want you to feel like I was... abducting you again. If you want to fly, you fly."

"I decided to trust you, Ben. I won't take it back now."

Ben felt something clench around his heart. Had anyone ever chosen to trust him? Not his uncle, certainly, or his mother. Not his friends. Not even Snoke.

But as Rey closed her eyes, maybe not sleeping but at least allowing herself to relax, she was putting her entire future in his hands.

His soulmark glowed contentedly and Rey absently reached up to touch hers. "These things are weird, aren't they?" she mumbled.

"Yes. Sleep, Rey. You're safe."

  


The End.

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Everybody who's quarantining and sheltering at home, hang in there! Those of you still working, thank you! Take care, y'all.


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